PROBLEM SOLVING

Evaluating information and weighing alternatives to resolve an issue or choose an appropriate course of action.

TASK

As part of a DAC 400 assignment, I was required to create three Odyssey Year Plans as an exercise in divergent life design thinking. The purpose of an Odyssey Year Plan is for an individual to explicitly map out the next five years of their life. The first Odyssey Year Plan is centered around the life you have in mind, the second Odyssey Year Plan is created if the first plan ceased to exist, and the third Odyssey Year Plan revolves around one’s five-year goals if money or one's image didn’t matter. After creating my three Odyssey Year Plans, I was tasked with choosing one to prototype. However, this was a difficult decision to make as I was unsatisfied with the plans I had created. To solve this issue, I used my problem solving skills to help me choose a course of action, or plan, to follow.

 

MY ACTIONS

I learned that I was unsatisfied with choosing to prototype one of my Odyssey Year Plans after reflecting on them and what they meant to me. In order to choose a course of action, I evaluated the plans that I had to understand what I liked and didn’t like about each of them. I thoroughly reviewed each of my plans both holistically and year-by-year. In my first Odyssey Year Plan, I planned to graduate, get an internship, which would lead to full-time employment and then a promotion by the end of my five years. In terms of my lifestyle, I would move back home to Toronto and invest time into taking online courses and dance classes as extracurriculars. I recognized that I enjoyed the employment stability that this plan imposed; however, I was unsatisfied with this plan’s lack of adventure and variety (refer to figure 1). In my second Odyssey Year Plan, I planned on moving back home to Toronto and applying to Graduate school in a course-based design program. Ideally, I would go to a program either in the U.S., out-of-province, or abroad. While living away I would explore the new city I’d be living in and invest my time into my health with healthier cooking and active hobbies, like rock climbing. Although I was excited by the idea of living somewhere new, I realized I was unhappy with back-to-back school and lack of job experience (refer to figure 2). In my third Odyssey Year Plan, I decided to start a social enterprise after graduation. Both my work and personal life would be dedicated to making my startup idea a reality as I planned to heavily involve myself in problem definition, looking for business partners, creating a business model, and taking management, finance, and entrepreneurship-based courses. While the thought of creating my own business gave me energy, I identified that I neither have the idea, entrepreneurial skills, nor finances necessary to venture into a startup quite yet (refer to figure 3). After reviewing each of these plans, I decided that I would pick none of them in favour of a new "life". Subsequently, I gathered ideas and goals that I liked in each of my three plans and combined them to envision a new future five years. Ultimately, I created a plan that involved life choices I wanted to prioritize, such as travel, work, and school. In my new plan, I would travel after graduation for a few months, move back home to work, and then have enough money saved to attend graduate school away from home (refer to figure 4).

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RESULTS

After I had created this new plan, I felt much more satisfied and ready to prototype my life. By spending more time to critically evaluate my Odyssey Life Plans, I was able to isolate what variables I wanted in my new life plan. My approach towards problem solving helped me choose a course of action, which ended up being the creation of a new Odyssey Life Plan that was more suitable to my needs and aspirations. When stuck on a course of action in the future, I’ll be sure to gather the information I have in order to identify why I feel stuck, and what I can do with the knowledge I have to move forward.

Figure 1: Questions I had about my Odyssey Year Plan 1, titled: "The Standard: Graduation, Employment, Moveout." My life concerns were specific to fulfillment and enjoyment.

Figure 4: An overview of my new Odyssey Life Plan 4 called: "The Best of Both Worlds?", which combines desirable travel, work, and study life choices from my previous three plans.